Gold Member

I don't know what it is, but I really can't stand it when guys use the term "dude" here...or elsewhere, for that matter. And even worse is when they spell it "dood". It is usually used as a derogative, as in: "Dude, you don't know what the fuck you're talkin' about, Dude!" Maybe it's because I can just hear the doped-out speech pattern behind that quote. Maybe it's because of may age...it was popular with pot heads in the mid '70's, I think.

None of them really bothers me if used sparingly. If it's every fifth word, that gets annoying. I do, however, draw the line at "brah". I just don't get it. It's one thing if someone is actually Hawaiian, but otherwise...

It doesn't bother me at all unless it's something that a person uses constantly in their speech.

The reasons why most people get irritated by words like dude, and bro ect.. is probably because some people use them to such excess that you get tired of hearing it every other sentence and just want to smack them until the word has been eliminated from their vocabulary.

Yeh, I agree with you. There are some guys on campus here who use it constantly. Every other word. I think it's just like saying "you know?" or "like" or "whatever". It's become part of everyday vocabulary. I always think it's funny when girls call each other dude though.

Gold Member

I don't know what it is, but I really can't stand it when guys use the term "dude" here...or elsewhere, for that matter. And even worse is when they spell it "dood". It is usually used as a derogative, as in: "Dude, you don't know what the fuck you're talkin' about, Dude!" Maybe it's because I can just hear the doped-out speech pattern behind that quote. Maybe it's because of may age...it was popular with pot heads in the mid '70's, I think.

Well, whatever it may be...does it bother anybody else?

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I used to be irritated by the use of "dude" as a term of address, and for much the same reason -- the "doped-out" (and, I would add, southern Californian) speech pattern associated with it. But in the past ten years or so, as the use of the word has become more and more common, I have come to associate it more with the vocabulary of the boys in South Park than with surfer dudes, so that it doesn't bother me so much. I sometimes even use it myself in Web posts, though I would still never use it in speech, other than facetiously.

By the way, I don't think that the expression has any derogatory connotation; it's just a way of asking for particular attention or understanding from someone with whom you are already talking -- at least in the use of it that I have in mind. (Examples (all from "Cartman Gets an Anal Probe"): "Dude! Don't call my brother a dildo!" "Dude! That kicks ass!" "Dude! Visitors!" Etc.)

I don't mind it, brah is a bit over the top though unless it's something you really grew up saying. I don't like these kind of words when they're used as part of Straight-Drag though, when a guy shovels them into his speech or writing in an attempt to advertise some kind of pretended "straightness". Not that I think these words are particularly heterosexual, but it annoys when people think they are and then start dressing their language in them as a mannered attempt to advertise something. The presumptions involved in that whole process are annoying.

Dude is used mostly by young men to address other young men; however, its use has expanded so that it is now used as a general address term for a group (same or mixed gender), and by and to women. Dude is developing into a discourse marker
that need not identify an addressee, and more generally encodes the speaker&#8217;s stance to his or her current addressee(s). Dude indexes a stance of cool solidarity, a stance which is especially valuable for young men as they navigate cultural Discourses of
young masculinity, which simultaneously demand masculine solidarity, strict heterosexuality,and nonconformity.

Using the word Dude as sentence filler is annoying, and a sad attempt by the user to sound hip and cool. For me, it only comes off as sounding dumb and "stoned". but then again, I'm a baby boomer, so what the fuck do i know....

Gold Member

I have friends in Hawaii who's children say *Brah* to me and it's a compliment coming from them. I have a few friends that I play golf or tennis with and we sometimes say "Dude that was awesome!" just to irritate each other. So to answer your question; if it's someone I know it does not really bother me. If it's someone I don't know I find it a tad irritating.

I don't know what it is, but I really can't stand it when guys use the term "dude" here...or elsewhere, for that matter. And even worse is when they spell it "dood". It is usually used as a derogative, as in: "Dude, you don't know what the fuck you're talkin' about, Dude!" Maybe it's because I can just hear the doped-out speech pattern behind that quote. Maybe it's because of may age...it was popular with pot heads in the mid '70's, I think.

Well, whatever it may be...does it bother anybody else?

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Yes. It bothers me as much as it does you. There's a condescension piece to it when one begins a sentence with the word "Dude, .... " as if you're not with the mainstream.

It's in the same league with "what's up?" and "have a good one" (meaning have an enjoyable day).

In my opinion it was not part of the general vernacular (at least in the northeast USA) until roughly thirty years ago. Wasn't it first manifest in the surfing community on the west coast? For me it does not denote a person who smokes marijuana.

I smoke weed occasionally (prefer quality hashish) but I can assure you I call no one "dude".

The language (in my view) is irretrievably rife with casual improper use and it's making people who speak proper English seem dated. Ah well. So be it. I wear that adjective willingly. This language is doomed to change (and not for the better).

By example; If I hear one more news anchor say "school closures" rather than the proper "school closings" I may well put my foot through the television screen.

Gold Member

Yes. It bothers me as much as it does you. There's a condescension piece to it when one begins a sentence with the word "Dude, .... " as if you're not with the mainstream.

It's in the same league with "what's up?" and "have a good one" (meaning have an enjoyable day).

In my opinion it was not part of the general vernacular (at least in the northeast USA) until roughly thirty years ago. Wasn't it first manifest in the surfing community on the west coast? For me it does not denote a person who smokes marijuana.

I smoke weed occasionally (prefer quality hashish) but I can assure you I call no one "dude".

The language (in my view) is irretrievably rife with casual improper use and it's making people who speak proper English seem dated. Ah well. So be it. I wear that adjective willingly. This language is doomed to change (and not for the better).

By example; If I hear one more news anchor say "school closures" rather than the proper "school closings" I may well put my foot through the television screen.

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dude. what up dude? Yo yo yo!

man like dude that post was totally awesome dude!

Yo yo yo dude why you be gotten a probs wid closure dude? Definitions include plug and seal. Maybe the school was sealed dude? Like dude some time you gotta seal a school cause maybe they be having a chemical test in there to do off the rats an things know waht I mean dude?

Yo yo yo seriously dude you need to set back dude cause it just aint right you slammin you foots true a television screen. RE-lax dude! hear what I'm saying dude?

Yes. It bothers me as much as it does you. There's a condescension piece to it when one begins a sentence with the word "Dude, .... " as if you're not with the mainstream.

It's in the same league with "what's up?" and "have a good one" (meaning have an enjoyable day).

In my opinion it was not part of the general vernacular (at least in the northeast USA) until roughly thirty years ago. Wasn't it first manifest in the surfing community on the west coast? For me it does not denote a person who smokes marijuana.

I smoke weed occasionally (prefer quality hashish) but I can assure you I call no one "dude".

The language (in my view) is irretrievably rife with casual improper use and it's making people who speak proper English seem dated. Ah well. So be it. I wear that adjective willingly. This language is doomed to change (and not for the better).

By example; If I hear one more news anchor say "school closures" rather than the proper "school closings" I may well put my foot through the television screen.

Click to expand...

There's no such thing as proper English, I mean if we're going to get in to usages which drive us mad then I have a major problem with the American-English use of the word "complex" instead of "complicated", the two words mean utterly different things, and this particular sloppiness has begun to become common in British-English now too.

However, I recognise that actually A.E. is in fact a separate dialect of the English language, and that to object terribly strongly to such usages is in fact a form of linguistic chauvinism, and that really languages change and adapt and evolve over time in a variety of ways for a variety of reason and under a wide variety of influences. The Great English Vowel Shift for instance, which took place between the mid 15th century and the mid 18th century would have made the English we now use, with its flatter longer vowel noises, extremely difficult for English speakers prior to the 15th century to understand, doubtless these english speakers would be horrified by the ugliness and "impropriety" of our modern "proper" English and would regard it as a bastardised and degenerated doggerel.

Who is right ? Them or those campaigning for the use of our version of "proper" English ? Ultimately it's a pointless question.

Gold Member

It's in the same league with "what's up?" and "have a good one" (meaning have an enjoyable day).

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To me, "have a good one" is in a different class of douchiness from "dude." It is a phrase typically favored by hopelessly lame people who want to be "with it" (is that expression itself any longer "with it"?). It's stupid and annoying.